Obama smacks down Trump’s border wall plan

Obama made some comments about Trump's "plan" to stop all the money going South from the U.S.

He used the "wall" Trump refers to being "paid for" by Mexico.

Trump says the billions of dollars being sent to Mexico allegedly by Mexicans living in the U.S. needs to stop until Mexico agrees to pay a one time fee of $5 to $10 billion.

Obama going after this is ironic since his own policies over the last 7 years are obvious failures.

I think Trump may be on to something else with the whole "remittance" issue.

I never believed all these people here in the U.S. that send money back to Mexico while keeping themselves in "poverty" like conditions is realistic.

I suspect the the "remittance" programs are mostly money laundering - tax evasion schemes.


Obama smacks down Trump’s border wall plan

President Obama on Tuesday bluntly dismissed Donald Trump’s proposal to force Mexico to pay for a border wall as “half-baked” and counterproductive and said the Republican frontrunner’s “wackier” foreign policy ideas were hurting the United States abroad.

In a memo obtained by the Washington Post, Trump said he would threaten to cut off money transfers from workers inside the United States — including U.S. citizens — to relatives in Mexico unless that country makes a one-time payment of $5 billion to $10 billion to pay for the construction of a 1,000-mile border fence.

Obama, speaking to reporters in the White House briefing room, said that doing so could cause “enormous” damage to Mexico’s economy, which depends on those transfers, usually known as remittances. The proposal is also “impractical,” he said.

Obama is just campaigning for Hillary on this one.

The proposal could 'cause enormous damage to the Mexican economy' - erm, yes, that's the whole point. Is Obama really that stupid and weak?

Of course that's how he responds. He knows that it would actually work out well so he dismisses it for the low info voter. The fact that it's been successfully done before is a moot point I guess.

a reply to: UKTruth

Is that a rhetorical question?

originally posted by: KingKelson
a reply to: UKTruth

Is that a rhetorical question?

Sort of, but I just can't believe he doesn't get the whole point of the threat.
No wonder he always ends up with the # end of the stick in his negotiations.

originally posted by: UKTruth
The proposal could 'cause enormous damage to the Mexican economy' - erm, yes, that's the whole point. Is Obama really that stupid and weak?

If the whole point of the wall is to cause damage to the Mexican economy wouldn't that encourage more illegal immigration into the US?

a reply to: xuenchen


Damn... I thought there was going to be a picture of Trump building a wall and Obama standing behind him saying "You didn't build that"!

a reply to: xuenchen

Trump needs to revise his fee pay and put a tax on every dollar that is shipped south by people that are not citizens. That would have a couple of decent effects of starting to get a handle on immigration and the billions of dollars that leave the country.

originally posted by: muse7

originally posted by: UKTruth
The proposal could 'cause enormous damage to the Mexican economy' - erm, yes, that's the whole point. Is Obama really that stupid and weak?

If the whole point of the wall is to cause damage to the Mexican economy wouldn't that encourage more illegal immigration into the US?

That is the point of the threat, not the point of the wall.

"The notion that we’re going to track every Western Union bit of money that’s being sent to Mexico — you know, good luck with that"...

Maybe some of the resources devoted to spying on every citizen down to the telephone calls they make (which he didn't need any luck with) could be diverted to rise to the much easier challenge of tracking money flows.

originally posted by: xuenchen
Obama, speaking to reporters in the White House briefing room, said that doing so could cause “enormous” damage to Mexico’s economy...

Honestly...who gives a shift about the Mexican economy when the US economy is in turmoil??? Time to bring back jobs and labour to this country where it belongs! Hoorah

a reply to: GD21D


Ummm...awe...your such an enlightened fellow...please regale us with your obvious intellect...

Why...it's so apparent that you stand head and shoulders above we...mere herd animals...

Such loving platitudes as well...

These people...
Lowest common denominator...
Mouth breathers...
Oh...and non thinkers...

What a magnificent specimen of the left you are...
You represent every single one of the labels hurled all in a single wrap of wasted skin...

However do you manage to carry around that vast intellect...I suppose someone must be the poster child...
Please do carry on...you are soooo...eminently entertaining...
What a positively refreshing look into what you might call rationale...
I fear expectation only serves to mock your stance in what strangely enough is your own voice...

Salright...your pathetic attempt at denigration only serves to assuage our laughter...but do carry on old chap...it's so fun to watch...




YouSir

This is simply Obama the globalist backing a foreign country over our own, as globalists increasingly do.

National security and the American economy isn't the priority, the priority is pandering to foreign countries so the elite can line their pockets.

Sure. Let Trump charge Mexico to build the wall. Assuming they actually pay-up and don't laugh at us for being idiots, all Mexico has to do is put a tax on exports to the US, including a tax on food and automobile parts, and they recoup the loss.

In the end, the US middle class is left paying the bill.

a reply to: introvert

The same middle class who loses out on jobs and better pay because we're importing food and automobile parts from other countries?

The economy will improve the most when America start producing for itself again, as it once did, and employs Americans on fair wages to do just that.

Mexico's taxing us is negated as soon as we stop relying on outsourcing jobs and importing food/items. Same for China, same for Vietnam. The globalists and corporate elite going overseas and taking advantage of cheap labor instead of paying Americans more and producing here is the real problem.

a reply to: introvert

I truly hope mexico does impose an export tax.

On top of Trump's of import tarriffs, this will really help to level the playing field and encourage US factories to move back to the US even faster.

a reply to: introvert


Ummm...actually Intro...it's we that would place the tax...I think 35% was mentioned...On all those companies products that fled south of the border...

That huge sucking sound Ross Perot spoke of would be heard again the whole world round...only it would be headed north...
As corporations realized all that money they thought they would save on slave labor...ate up their profit margin...

Mexico itself produces nothing that we need...we can always eat California avocados after all...





YouSir

Senor Trump is loco.

In the first place, this is highly unethical. People work for this money and don't send it back home for funsies. There is a reason they send it back, more than likely because they have loved ones who depend on it. Mothers, fathers, children, sick and elderly. Money that buys food, shelter, clothes and medications. In some cases, Trump might very well be cutting off a life-line to thousands of people.

He suggests no screening process, so who might he be injuring or damaging in some way? He doesn't know what the unintended consequences there might be, and how far reaching they might be. You can't blindly cut off someone's lifeline, nor blindly tell someone how to spend earned income. It approaches a sort of 'blackmail".

~How is this enforceable? Even if the wiring process - Western Union - folds and decides to honor the directive, then what is to stop them from mailing money? Should the USPS be required to go through every piece of mail addressed to the countries south of us? It's not feasible; it won't work, and it shouldn't work. He doesn't want to be a policy maker or a negotiator, he wants to be a King. A king who blindly makes absurd policies without considering repercussions around the table, with impunity and unyielding control.

Fools rush in where wise men fear to tread.